Millie Knight

Millicent Genevieve "Millie" Knight[2] (born 15 January 1999) is a Paralympic athlete and student who competes at international level for ParalympicsGB in alpine skiing in the slalom, giant slalom Super-G, Super Combined and Downhill events with a sighted guide, Brett Wild.[3] When Knight was one year old, she contracted an illness, diagnosed at age three, which resulted in the loss of most of her vision by the age of six. She joined the Great Britain paralympic skiing team in 2012, and progressed to compete at international-level events. Knight was the flagbearer at the 2014 Winter Paralympics opening ceremony, her debut Paralympics, in Sochi where, at the age of 15, she was the youngest person ever to compete for ParalympicsGB at the Winter Paralympic games. In 2017, Knight and Wild became Great Britain’s first World Champions in a snow sport. In the same year Knight also became an Honorary Doctor of the University of Kent.

Millie Knight
Personal information
Full nameMillicent Genevieve Knight
NationalityBritish
Born (1999-01-15) 15 January 1999[1]
Canterbury, Kent
EducationKing's School, University of Stirling
Height1.69 m (5 ft 7 in) (2017)
Weight70 kg (11 st 0 lb; 154 lb) (2017)
Sport
CountryGreat Britain
SportAlpine skiing
DisabilityVisually Impaired
Disability classB2
Event(s)Slalom
Giant slalom
Downhill
Super-G
Super Combined
Coached byAmanda Pirie (national)
Achievements and titles
World finalsWorld Cup Globe Overall Giant Slalom, Super-G and Downhill winner
Paralympic finalsSochi Winter Paralympics 2014 Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics 2018
Highest world ranking
  • World No. 1 in Downhill
  • No. 2 in Super-G
  • No. 2 in Super Combined
  • No. 2 Slalom
  • No. 2 in Giant Slalom
Medal record
Women's para alpine skiing
Representing  Great Britain
Paralympic Games
2018 PyeongchangDownhill
2018 PyeongchangSuper-G
2018 PyeongchangSlalom
World Championships
2017 TarvisioDownhill
2017 TarvisioCombined
2017 TarvisioGiant slalom
2017 TarvisioSlalom
2015 PanoramaGiant slalom
2015 PanoramaSlalom
Updated on 18 March 2018.

Early life and education

Knight was born on 15 January 1999 in Canterbury, Kent.[1] She was six when she lost much of her vision; in her left eye she has 5–10% peripheral vision, and in her right eye she has 5%.[4]

As of 2014 Knight was studying for her GCSEs in tandem with her sporting career.[5] She was enrolled at King's School in Canterbury; her first year studying there was 2012.[6]

As of 2016, Knight continued to study for her A-Levels in which she obtained 3 As, securing her a place at Loughborough university, Stirling University and Kent University to study psychology starting in 2019[7] She is now studying at Kent University.

Skiing career

In 2006 at the age of seven,[8] shortly before Knight lost the majority of her sight, she had been to France on a skiing holiday and was encouraged to try the sport by her mother.[9] Knight was inspired to take up the sport competitively when she met sit-skier Sean Rose, shortly after he had competed at the 2010 Winter Paralympics.[7] Her mother was Knight's first sighted guide[1] until late January 2013[10] for financial reasons.[11] The pair competed together in visually impaired (VI) races.[12]

In November 2012, at age 13, Knight began training with Great Britain's Paralympic development squad.[8][13] She raced at the Europa Cup in slalom and giant slalom.[5] in spring 2013.[1] Her stand in, temporary sighted guide at the Games, Rachael Ferrier, briefly joined Knight at the end of 2013.[14][9]

Knight competes in class B2 due to her lack of complete vision, a classification between being blind and visually impaired.

2014 Paralympics

Knight's debut Paralympics was the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi;[5] competing at the age of 15 made her the youngest ParalympicsGB competitor at any Winter Paralympics.[15] She was the flag bearer at the opening ceremony for ParalympicsGB, carrying the flag at the Fisht Olympic Stadium,[6] an honour Knight described as "a surprise".[8] She competed for ParalympicsGB in the slalom on 14 March, completing both of her runs, and finishing fifth,[16] and competed in the giant slalom on 16 March, again finishing fifth.[8] There was not any significant expectation on Knight at the 2014 Paralympics, as her target is the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang.[6]

Post-Sochi

Following the Sochi games, it was announced in April 2014 that Knight would participate in the Queen's Baton Relay on 5 June 2014,[17] carrying the Baton in Kent.[18]

Knight immediately parted company with Ferrier after the 2014 Paralympics: as a result Knight competed in the 2014-15 season with a series of stand-in guides.[7] That season she travelled to Canada to compete at the 2015 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in Panorama Mountain Village in British Columbia.[19]

Prior to the Championships Knight had won two gold medals on the World Cup tour and hopes were high that she may medal. At Panorama Knight took part in the two technical events, the slalom and giant slalom, as she was still too young to compete in the speed events.[19] In her first event, the giant slalom, Knight took the lead in the first run with a time of 1:12.90, but despite bettering this time in her second run with 1:11.49, she was beaten into silver medal place by a third of a second by Russia's Aleksandra Frantseva.[20][21] Two days later Knight took part in the slalom, winning bronze, Britain's only two medals of the games.[22]

The following season Knight teamed up with guide Brett Wild, who had previously raced with Knight's coach Euan Bennet on the Scottish ski team. After initially meeting at a training camp in December 2015, the pair competed together at the World Cup finals in Aspen, Colorado, where they took two wins in the downhill and super-G and a third place in the giant slalom: this success convinced the pair to focus on the speed disciplines, which they felt were their strength.[7]

In the run-up to the 2017 World Para Alpine Skiing Championships in Tarvisio, Italy, Knight enjoyed a great deal of success on the World Cup circuit, taking 11 medals including seven golds in the months leading up to the championships. At the Championships themselves, Knight and guide Brett Wild took gold in the downhill with a time of 1:13.42, beating five-time Paralympic champion Henrieta Farkašová by 1.2 seconds. Team GB officials stated that this was the first world championship title for a British paraskier.[3] Knight and Wild subsequently took a silver behind Farkašová in the Super Combined[23] and a second silver in the Giant Slalom.[24]

Since the World Championships in February, Knight sustained concussion though a crash at the World Cup Finals in March in South Korea. The crash took her out of action for several months. However she was still crowned World Cup downhill champion for the season.[7]

In July 2017, Knight became an Honorary Doctor of The University of Kent.[2]

2018 Paralympics

At the 2018 Paralympics in Pyongchang, South Korea, Knight took two silver medals on the opening weekend of the Games in the downhill and super-G,[7] before taking the bronze in the slalom on the final day of the Paralympics.[25]

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References
  1. "Millie Knight". British Paralympic Association. Archived from the original on 15 January 2018. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  2. "Millicent Genevieve Knight - Congregations - University of Kent". www.kent.ac.uk.
  3. Hope, Nick (25 January 2017). "Millie Knight: Paralympic skier wins World Championship downhill gold". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  4. Egelstaff, Susan (7 March 2014). "Trust and friendship day and Knight ..." The Herald. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  5. "Sochi 2014: GB Winter Paralympic team profiles". BBC. 28 February 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  6. "Knight proud to carry GB flag". Shropshire Star. 6 March 2014. Archived from the original on 7 March 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  7. Bell, Graham (12 March 2018). "Meet Millie Knight, the 18-year-old Winter Paralympian taking home two silver medals from South Korea". telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  8. "Sochi 2014: Millie Knight picked as ParalympicsGB flagbearer". BBC. 6 March 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  9. "KNIGHT Millie". International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  10. "Guide Wanted Urgently!!!". Millie Knight. Facebook. 27 January 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  11. "Millie Knight to carry the flag at Paralympics' opening ceremony". mynewsdesk.com. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  12. "Millie Knight: athlete of the month". Sports Aid. 22 January 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  13. "Skiers selected to represent ParalympicsGB at Sochi 2014". ParalympicsGB. 23 January 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  14. "FP Rachael To Accompany GB Flagbearer at Sochi". www.st-columbas.org. 2 February 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
  15. Grant, Helen (7 March 2014). "Helen Grant, Minister for Sport blogs for ParalympicsGB". ParalympicsGB. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  16. "Sochi Paralympics: Jade Etherington wins slalom silver". BBC. 12 March 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  17. "Kent batonbearers announced". Kent Inspire. 16 April 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  18. "Commonwealth Games: Queen's baton relay to go through Tonbridge, Dartford, Herne Bay, Folkestone and Maidstone on Kent leg of tour". Kent Online. 22 May 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  19. Hope, Nick (5 March 2015). "Para-skiing Worlds: Millie Knight aims to 'fly the flag' for Britain". BBC. Retrieved 20 December 2015.>
  20. "Event Overview - Women's Giant Slalom - Visually Impaired" (PDF). IPC Alpine Skiing. 8 March 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  21. "Millie Knight & Jen Kehoe win skiing silver at IPC Worlds". BBC. 8 March 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2015.>
  22. "Millie Knight and guide Jen Kehoe win world slalom bronze". BBC. 10 March 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2015.>
  23. "Millie Knight: Paralympic skier wins World Championships silver in super combined". bbc.co.uk. 28 January 2017. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  24. "British pair Millie Knight and Menna Fitzpatrick claim para-skiing medals". bbc.co.uk. 30 January 2017. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  25. Belam, Martin (18 March 2018). "Winter Paralympics: Menna Fitzpatrick wins Britain's first gold on final day". theguardian.com. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
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